http://forum.recordingreview.com/ en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:37:44 GMT vBulletin 10 http://forum.recordingreview.com/images/misc/rss.jpg http://forum.recordingreview.com/ http://forum.recordingreview.com/showthread.php?t=24393&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:58:49 GMT sorry this is so long. feel free to click the back button.

If there's one thing I've learned about club gigs, it's that the energy you give to the crowd is returned to you. Stand stiff, you get shoegazers. Be the fearless rock robot who lays the stage to waste and the crowd will repay you with noise and excitement for your courage.

Me? I'm a guitar puncher. It's common for my pickguard to be splattered with blood after a show. The skin on my fingernails is usually peeled back 1/2", bleeding profusely. If possible, I try to avoid alternate strumming anytime i can get away with doubling up the downstrokes. The end result is a right arm that is undeniably thrashing away; and when mixed with my guitar body and the sweat from delivering said performance, always leaves a raw hole burned in my forearm. i'm not trying to 'money for nothing' this with whining at all...i see it as the least i can do for people who paid to SEE what they like to hear.

the point: the aforementioned is why i decided to sell my heritage cherry Gibson SG Standard. it was an immaculate thing of beauty that orgasmed at any bluesy lick or AC/DC riff thrown at it. it didn't deserve the ass kicking i handed it night after night. so, i sold it to somebody who would love it and give it room to run.

i took the money to a pawn shop and bought a Fender Squier Strat for $100. my only interest-a nice straight neck and good frets. it had lameass flame stickers all over it, but i got them off ok. i put seymour duncan hotrails in the neck and bridge position. i replaced the tuning machines with Schaller locking tuners. I took the whammy bar off, removed the springs, and secured the bridge to body. added a set of locking strap holders, and this thing was a tone monster...and ready for the bullshit i would put it through.

something was always concerning to me, though. the string saddles are the fender branded saddles. the headstock has the large "Fender" logo in silver, stratocaster in black, and a very small emblem that said "Squier Series" in the upper most knob of the headstock. i always appreciated that, because it looked more like a Fender and less like a Squier (i've played guitar for 25 years, it's nice that it doesn't look like i just got a squier strat pack for christmas). it's a 'CN' series according to the serial number. there's not a lot of info on it...but research shows that these were made by Cort in Korea. however, pictures of the CN strats never had the same logo set as mine. i thought "well, maybe somebody was a brand snob and they switched the logos...but why would they put a 'Squier Series' logo on there if they didn't have to?"

i did tons and tons of research and found ZILCH on CN series squiers with this branding. so, i emailed Fender with pics and asked. turns out-i have one of the rarest runs of Fender Squiers ever made. son of a bitch.

moral of the story-i bought a crappy guitar only to find out it was a relic. people go nuts over collecting JV series Squiers, and this one is even more desirable to collectors. i can't bring myself to slap it around anymore. thankfully, all of my modifications were pretty much non-destructive. i kept the old pickups, and didn't really have to do much to finish the rest of the work.

anybody else have any stories like this? lucking into antiques roadshow gear? it's a blessing to have it, but now i'm stuck ordering burstbuckers and tuning machines for an Epiphone Korina SG...and while a limited run, is easily found on eBay. ]]> Guitar Forum cheatingatmath http://forum.recordingreview.com/showthread.php?t=24393 http://forum.recordingreview.com/showthread.php?t=24320&goto=newpost Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:21:14 GMT Hey dudes,

I've been working on my chops once again (for the first time in almost a decade) and I've found it very annoying having to stop playing to switch the dumb metronome. I was wondering if anyone know of some kind of foot pedal controlled metronome to save time.

Brandon ]]> Guitar Forum brandondrury http://forum.recordingreview.com/showthread.php?t=24320 http://forum.recordingreview.com/showthread.php?t=24300&goto=newpost Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:34:11 GMT Hey dudes,

I've been taking guitar seriously for the past month. I haven't done this since I got serious about audio engineering.

Anyhow, I got a Strat Plus Deluxe with a Wilkinson tremolo, roller nut, locking tuners that I've been using as my main ax. When I first start playing, the tremolo was floating. When I did a wide vibrato, the bridge would fly up and down. Playing acoustically you could hear the bridge slamming back down as I released the wide vibrato.

I hated that.

Then one day I realized that bends were easier and overall the guitar was much easier to play. Then I realized the bridge was no longer coming up when I did these vibratos. (Good!)

Now how do I make it stay that way?:D Any idea on what happened?

Brandon ]]> Guitar Forum brandondrury http://forum.recordingreview.com/showthread.php?t=24300 http://forum.recordingreview.com/showthread.php?t=24292&goto=newpost Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:59:15 GMT There is no forum for plugins?! LOL

Anyways, I'm going to attempt a bit of a diary for my search for my sound using Guitar rig 4. Currently the tone chain is

Ibanez 7421 with BlazeIIs
Berry Vamp Pro Bass (Brit hi gain with a distortion pedal), stereo split ambience
Berry Vamp Pro Guit (Recto Head), stereo reversed split reverb
Line6 Pod Pro 2.0 (Modern Hi Gain XP88 SWEET) with delay, compression and verb
through the mixer. Hurrah.

My sound is virtually perfect right now. I just tweak in more or less Recto Head for a phat or edgy sound. Tons of harmonics, lots of muscle.

HOW DO WE COPY THIS?!

SO far, I've tried tweaking Gratifier and Ultrasonic patches, added pedals etc, all come out sound gutless or weird.

I had an idea to check out the Dimebag patch because its a weird combo of solid state + pedals plus a Sansamp with control room (I think). I've realised that in order to get the sounds you want, you need to ignore the brands and just go for what works.

Today's discovery was - flicking through the patch bank and the 80s Lead took my fancy (I basically love the Marshall on steriods distortions). Thought about it and added a Sansamp and tweaked the sounds a bit for more gain. Lost that initial oomph in the upper mids. However... I added a stereo split for the cabs and inserted the "modern 4x12 aggressive" sound. Whoa. Where did the tone come from???

This is the biggest revelation for Guitar Rig 4 users... you can add a LOT of stereo cabs to that mix. I actually hooked up two sets of stereo split cabs - AKA 4 different cabinets. This gave me the harmonics and muscle that was woefully lacking before.

Now - to find the right tweaks. I love a wide sound, but I do a lot of technical riffing and my technique isn't good enough to pull out outside string muting and squeals at 240bpm. I need the right delay, compression (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and verbs to get the space.

It's very interesting. ;) ]]> Guitar Forum Xplora http://forum.recordingreview.com/showthread.php?t=24292